


Let It All Out Now

by tabbytabbytabby



Series: Laura Hale Appreciation Week 2018 [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Laura Hale, Angst, Gen, Hale Family Feels, Hugs, Post Hale Fire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 10:19:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16116383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tabbytabbytabby/pseuds/tabbytabbytabby
Summary: Laura has been doing her best to keep it together after the fire, but life on the road isn't easy on her or Derek. As Laura quickly figures out, everyone reaches a breaking point eventually.





	Let It All Out Now

**Author's Note:**

> For day 5 of Laura Hale Appreciation Week: The Missing Years

Fire and smoke. That’s all she sees when she closes her eyes. So she usually doesn’t. It’s hard for her to sleep. She’s always looking over her shoulder, waiting for the next threat to come along. Even in her dreams she can’t escape it. Derek doesn’t sleep much either, though he pretends to. When he does sleep he usually wakes up screaming and calling out for their family, telling them all how sorry he is. It makes Laura’s chest ache.

She still isn’t completely sure what happened but she knows it was a hunter. Something tells her that Derek knows more than he’s saying but she lets it go, at least for now. He’ll talk about it when he’s ready. At least she hopes he will.

It’s been weeks of being on the road, sleeping in cheap motel rooms, and never staying in one place for too long. She knows Derek is getting restless but she isn’t sure what to do. She’s his alpha and his sister and she has no idea how to help him.

It’s not fair to make him live like this. Logically she knows it’s not her fault that they are, but she still can’t help the guilt. Derek’s young. He shouldn’t be feeling this much pain.

_Neither should you_.

She shakes the thought. She can’t think of herself right now. She needs to figure out where they’re going next. What they need is a place they can settle down and lay low. Someplace safe. But she’s not sure a place like that exists. She can’t even reach out to her family’s allies because she doesn’t want to risk bringing the same fate to them. So for now they’re on their own.

It’s a month after the fire and they’re in some small town in Virginia. It’s yet another cheap motel room and a meal of gas station food. Derek picks at it, the look on his face telling her just how unhappy he is. He looks like that a lot these days.

“You should eat, Der,” Laura tries. “If you don’t want that you can have my sandwich. I haven’t touched it. Or I could get you something else? But you need to eat something. You’re looking so thin these days and it’s not healthy.”

"Just stop it!" Derek yells, his clenched jaw and creased forehead making him look even more like their dad than usual. "Stop trying to… to mother me! You're not her and you never will be so just let me deal with things my way!"

Laura gapes at him for a moment, feeling startled by his outburst. She knows he’s angry but he’s never snapped at her like this before.

“Derek…”

“Just don’t,” Derek sighs, throwing his food down and getting to his feet. He makes his way towards the door and Laura stands up, worried. “I’m going out. I need air. Please don’t follow me. I need to be… not here.”

Laura wants to argue. She wants to tell him it’s not safe, but she can’t bring herself to do it. If he needs time alone she can at least give him that. He leaves, slamming the door behind him so hard it rattles the paintings on the walls, as well as Laura’s carefully built control. She takes a shuddering breath and sits heavily on the edge of the bed. The weight of everything suddenly feels like too much.

She’s been trying so hard to be a good sister and alpha, to be the person Derek needs her to, but it hasn’t been enough. Everything she’s been doing has been wrong. She’s failing him. She closes her eyes as the tears she’s been holding back for the past few weeks finally start to fall. It’s as if a damn breaks, and now that she’s started crying she can’t seem to stop.

She brings her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around her legs, trying to take deep breaths as sobs wrack her body. She’s been so worried about Derek keeping everything in that she never stopped to think of the effect keeping all her emotions buried could have on her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers to the empty room. “I’m so sorry.”

She thinks of her mother, of how strong she was and how she always seemed to know the right thing to do and say. Especially where Derek was concerned. Laura and Derek are close, and up until a few months had been able to talk about almost anything. But something changed, even before the fire. Now he feels further away than ever and she’s not sure how to reach him.

Her mother probably would. Or their father. But Laura? She’s at a loss as to what she can say to make things better. If there’s even anything at all. Derek’s drawn so far in on himself that she’s not sure how to get through him. She tries but nothing she does works. Apparently it’s just making things worse if his outburst tonight is anything to go by.

All she wants right now is her mother and father. She wants her mother to wrap her up in her arms and tell her it’s all going to be okay, just like she had so many times before. She wants her father to make his special hot chocolate and wrap her in a thick blanket and kiss the top of her head. She just wants her parents.

She holds her knees tighter and sobs harder as a whine slips past her lips. It’s too much. All of it is. She eventually moves until she’s laying down in the middle of the bed with her face tucked into the jacket Derek has been so fond of wearing. It was their fathers and it still smells like him. It should be a comfort but all it does it remind her of what she’s lost.

“Laur?”

Derek’s quiet voice sounds from the doorway. Laura doesn’t move to sit up as she normally would. She doesn’t have the strength to, mentally or physically.

“It’s fine Der,” Laura says, her voice slightly hoarse from all the crying.

“It doesn’t seem fine,” Derek says, moving into the room and closing the door behind him. “You’ve been crying.”

Laura sighs and runs a hand down her face, “I have but it’s…”

“Don’t say it’s fine when it’s clearly not,” Derek says, his words coming out harsh, probably harsher than he intended them. She listens as his shoes hit the floor and then the bed behind her is dipping. Nothing happens for a long moment, and she thinks maybe Derek’s just going to sit there. Then Derek is moving again, fitting himself against her back and wrapping his arms around her as he tucks his face into her neck.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, his warm breath puffing against her hair. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

“It’s not that,” Laura says. “You have a right to be angry.”

“Then what is it?”

“I’m afraid I’m not doing enough for you,” Laura tells him. “We’re always on the road and staying in these shitty motel rooms, having to look over our shoulders. You should be in school and having a life. Not basically living out of a car and on the run. You deserve better than that.”

“So do you,” Derek tells her. “But none of this is your fault. It’s…” he takes a deep breath and for a moment she thinks he’s finally going to talk to her. But if he was, he must change his mind. “It’s the hunters fault. The ones that started the fire and killed everyone. But none of this is on you. You’re doing the best you can. I know I haven’t been making it easy on you, and I’m sorry.”

“We’ve both been hurting,” Laura says, bringing a hand up to rest over his own. “But we need to learn to talk to each other. We’re all we have left, Der. We have to be able to rely on each other.”

“You’re right,” Derek says, “I need to tell you something but I’m not… I’m not ready yet.”

“That’s okay,” Laura assures him. “As long as you know you can tell me, and when you’re ready I’ll be here to listen. No judgement.”

“Okay,” Derek’s hold tightens on her, and he releases a long breath and then relaxes behind her. “Okay.”

It’s not much. Laura knows they still have a lot to talk about, most of it probably painful. But Derek is here and getting closer to letting her in again. They might not have a lot anymore, but they still has each other. For now, that’s going to have to be enough.


End file.
